'Stop here on red' puts Carbon motorists in a rut

Carbon County Motorists must surpass the stop line to get a clear sight-distance… (DANNY HARTZELL, THE MORNING…)

April 04, 2013|Dan Hartzell | The Road Warrior

Q: When the Harrity Road Bridge near the Lehighton Turnpike Interchange was a two-lane bridge, the stop line for southbound bridge traffic was 6 feet back from the intersection, with a 'stop here on red' sign for emphasis. This allowed vehicles turning left onto the bridge from eastbound Interchange Road sufficient the room to make the turn. That was fine for the conditions, but the stop line wasn't moved when the new three-lane bridge opened, creating a problem:

Right turns on red are allowed, but right-turners are too far back to see oncoming traffic from the left. Some people first stop at the line, then proceed forward, then turn right on red. Others stay at the line until the light turns green, prompting a lot of horn-blowing from behind. Isn't the stop line too far back? It could be painted 6 feet ahead, since the middle lane now is a left-hand turn lane, and cars at the line would not conflict with Route 209 left-turners crossing in front of them.

— Ed Marzen, West Penn Township, Schuylkill County

A: In first gear I thought you were absolutely right, Ed. I figured that repositioning the stop line for the right-hand southbound lane of the new Harrity Road Bridge, moving it ahead by more like 10 feet, would turbo-boost traffic safety at this intersection in Parryville, adjacent to what the Turnpike calls the Mahoning Valley interchange.

I saw a multitude of cars turn left from Route 209 onto the bridge, with more than enough room to accommodate those turning right on red from the bridge onto 209. For right-turners coming off the bridge and stopped at the line, concrete pillars from the Turnpike overpass thoroughly block the view to the left; moving ahead a bit solves the problem.

I figured we'd caught the engineers without their protractors, but PennDOT's Tom Walter tossed his into the works, like the proverbial money wrench: Though there's plenty of room for cars, SUVs or even box trucks to make the turn, we hadn't accounted for tractor-trailers making the left onto the bridge, Walter said. Big-rigs need the extra space back from the stop line, and even then, they encroach onto the right-hand shoulder of the northbound lane of the bridge to make the turn, he said.

That might account for the presence of the "stop here on red" sign, Ed. Failing to do so might get you clipped by a turning tractor-trailer, at least by Walter's calculation.

This is hardly the only intersection in the region with sight-distance challenges, and other complications can serve as roadblocks for easy solutions. Cindy Troxell of Lower Macungie has pointed out that the view to the left from the right-lane stop bar on northbound Brookside Road at Hamilton Boulevard in the township is difficult to begin with, and that rental trucks often parked at the service station at the intersection's southwest corner can further block the view.

Many municipalities have ordinances designed to keep traffic sight-lines clear, and through which residents or business owners can be induced to trim or remove shrubs or even trees, for example, in the name of safety.

A section of the state Vehicles Law titled "Removal of traffic hazards by property owner" also places the legal onus for maintaining sight-lines directly onto property owners' side of the road. "It is the duty of the owner of real property to remove from the property any tree, plant, shrub or other similar obstruction, or part thereof, which by obstructing the view of any driver constitutes a traffic hazard," the law states.

Brent McNabb, owner of McNabb's Service and Repair at the Lower Macungie intersection, said he's received no complaints about the trucks, but that he previously moved an obstructive truck from the corner of the property after personally noticing that it blocked the view. It's important for marketing purposes that the trucks available for rent be visible to the public, he said.

PennDOT engineer Dennis Toomey said for the department to act in such a case, an engineering or traffic study would be needed to demonstrate that a genuine hazard exists. PennDOT can't simply proclaim a hazard and impose its will on people (nor can a municipal entity, for that matter). Normally, mutual agreements are reached in the relatively few cases in which property owners are asked to move obstructions, Toomey said. He was aware of no instances in our region in which PennDOT took anyone to court in an obstruction case.

As you noted, Cindy, Brookside and Hamilton is challenging in other respects; I've done two previous columns on issues related to the intersection.

Apart from McNabb's property — the business has been there for more than a half-century, by the way — the skew of the intersection and the resulting bend in the right-turn lane creates an unusually sharp angle for viewing oncoming traffic to the left.